People are complaining about the health care system in the US saying that people are going without healthcare because of the cost.

WAKE UP….. most of these people have lived a lifestyle that requires constant health care. People eat crap, don’t exercise (30 min walk is not exercise!) and basically they are the walking dead. Then there are those who drink and or smoke, don’t even get me started on them.

Ever heard the saying “prevention is better than the cure”. If everyone took responsibility for their own health by eating a quality diet of mostly organic foods, exercise intensely and avoiding chemicals and drugs that are harmful then there would be no problem with the health care system.

I was just reading a new study that says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese. How the hell does this happen? Parents need to be taught the importance of good nutrition. The problem is the the information is being corrupted by those who profit from it. Companies like Monsanto who produces so called food products that starving animals would not even touch. These companies and in bed with the pharmaceutical industry, feeding off one other.

Wake up America – take your health in to your own hands and stop relying on a system that profit from you being sick. Take responsibility for your own health.

If you want to know how to get you health in check then check out AF Performance Center we can take you to where you want to be with your health.

Interesting article below….. More reason to supplement with CoQ10. This is why CoQ10 is on my Core Supplement Program list for everyone. Just a word or warning, not all CoQ10 is equal, careful where you purchase it from. At AF Performance Cernter we only sell the highest quality (two carefully selected brands) .

CoQ10 may boost heart health of diabetics on statins
By Stephen Daniells, 02-Apr-2009

Supplements of coenzyme Q10 may increase the vascular health of diabetics receiving statins, according to a new study from Australia.

Following 12 weeks of supplementation with CoQ10 (200mg per day) an improvement in the blood flow was observed, according to findings published in the journal Diabetes Care.

It is well known that statins deplete the body’s natural stores of CoQ10, and this has boosted use of CoQ10, particularly in the US, where the popularity of statins has increased.

The new findings indicate that, in addition to redressing the balance of CoQ10, supplementation may also improve endothelial dysfunction in statin-treated type 2 diabetic patients.

“The patients in our study had endothelial dysfunction despite satisfactory control of blood pressure, glycaemia and lipids, which may represent the proportion of statin-treated patients at increased residual risk of cardiovascular disease,” wrote the researchers, led by Professor Gerald Watts from the University of Western Australia.

“Our absolute improvement in [blood flow in the arm] of 1 per cent with CoQ10 supplementation may potentially translate to a 10-25 per cent reduction in residual cardiovascular risk in these patients.”

According to the International Diabetes Federation, there are over 245 million people with diabetes worldwide. If current trends continue, this number will rise to a staggering 380 million by 2030. Current costs of diabetic complications are estimated to account for 5 to 10 per cent of total global healthcare spending.

Study details

In order to test their hypothesis that oral CoQ10 supplementation would improve the vascular health in statin-treated diabetics, Prof Watts and his co-workers recruited 23 statin-treated type 2 diabetic patients with endothelial dysfunction (and LDL-cholesterol levels less than 2.5mmol per litre). The volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either CoQ10 or placebo for 12 weeks.

The randomised, double-blind, crossover study analysed by brachial artery flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), a measure of endothelial dysfunction since a low value is indicative of a blood vessel’s inability to relax, and nitrate-mediated dilation (NMD), which relates to nitric oxide, a potent endothelium-derived relaxing factor.

The researchers report a 2.7-fold increase in blood levels of CoQ10 following supplementation, and an increase in FMD of 1 per cent. However, no changes in NMD were recorded, nor were any changes in levels of oxidative stress observed, assessed by measuring levels of compounds called F2-isoprostanes in the blood and urine.

“Impaired FMD is a consistent predictor of adverse cardiovascular events,” wrote the researchers. “Several interventions that improve FMD also improve cardiovascular outcomes.

“The significance of the findings in our report, however, require further investigation in a clinical endpoint trial,” they added.

The CoQ10 used in this study was provided by Blackmores (Balgowlah, Australia), and the study was funded by a CardioVascular Lipid Research grant from Pfizer.

No doubt you know my views on the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. Well it is for good reason and it’s becoming more evident yet people choose to have their heads in the sand when it comes to their health.

One of the latest “great idea” put out there by the pharmaceutical industry involves everyone taking statin drugs just as asprin was promoted all those yours ago. They claim that the benifits out weigh the dangers and that cholesterol is the killer of all and is the cause of CHD (something that has NEVER been proven by an independent study).

Well you may want to read the article below before jumping on the bandwagon. This is only the tip of the iceberg the problems associated with statin drugs.

Over 38 million people in the U.S. are currently taking statin drugs to lower high cholesterol levels. However, Gern scientists at the Martin Luther-University in Halle-Wittenberg have just published research in the Journal of Lipid Research that shows, for some people, taking statins actually increases the risk of having heart attacks.

The researchers studied over 1,000 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), and found that a subset of those had high levels of an enzyme called phospholipid transferprotein, or PLTP for short. PTLP is known to influence the metabolism of cholesterol-containing molecules like low density lipoprotein (LDL, or the “bad” cholesterol) and high density lipoprotein (the “good” cholesterol known as HDL) . While the exact role PLTP plays in cardiovascular health remains unknown, the enzyme is associated with atherosclerosis (the accumulation of plaque in arteries) and heart disease. So a team of scientists led by Axel Schlitt decided to measure the amount of PLTP in 1,085 patients with CAD and then track these PLTP levels to see what the relationship of the enzyme might be to future cardiovascular events.

A little over five years later, 156 of the study participants had suffered from fatal or non-fatal heart attacks, including 47 of the 395 people in the group who were taking statin drugs. Surprisingly, the researchers found that people with high PLTP levels didn’t have more heart attacks, unless they were taking statins — taking the drugs gave them a significant increase in their heart attack risk.

In a statement to the media, the researchers noted that while follow-up studies are needed to tease out the exact connection between PLTP and statins, their study does suggest levels of PLTP in the blood should be looked at before people are put on statin medications.

Although statin drugs have been shown to lower cholesterol levels dramatically, there are a host of natural and side-effect free ways to accomplish this, including increasing fiber in the diet, increasing exercise levels, and losing weight. On the other hand, popping a statin pill each day may seem like an easy short-cut to reducing cholesterol, but it can come with a significant price, and not only to the pocketbook. A host of side effects, from liver and kidney damage to memory problems and muscle damage have been reported.

In fact, approximately 200,000 Americans who take statins to treat high cholesterol may develop a life-threatening muscle disease called “statin myopathy”, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Currently there is no comprehensive way to identify those who may be at risk for this debilitating condition, but new NIH-funded research is currently underway by scientists at the University at Buffalo to hopefully find out.